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Canelo Alvarez lands a left hook to the jaw of Miguel Cotto during their November 2015 bout in Las Vegas/Associated Press photo by John Locher

We never like to hear about a fighter having to pull out of a scheduled bout because of an injury, so it was therefore somewhat of a bummer to hear that James Kirkland had to withdraw from his scheduled Feb. 25 junior middleweight fight against Miguel Cotto in Frisco, Texas.

Roc Nation announced Thursday that Kirkland had sustained a fractured nose. The news release did not say how it happened, but it doesn’t really matter. If he can’t fight, he can’t fight.

That said, this probably saves HBO a bit of embarrassment. See, the longtime boxing giant had for whatever reason decided to make this a pay-per-view bout. That was just ridiculous.

Cotto has not fought in nearly 15 months and is coming off a decision loss to Canelo Alvarez. Kirkland has not fought in 21 months and is coming off a third-round knockout loss to Alvarez.

Again, to think of this as a pay-per-view event was just absurd. If it is re-scheduled down the road, we’re hopeful HBO will realize that this belongs on its regular channel, not its pay-per-view arm.

Even if the promoters for the respective fighters somehow forced HBO’s hand – and we don’t know that – HBO needs to be in control. It must stay away from making obvious non-pay-per-view fights into pay-per-view. No one should push this company around, after all it’s done over the decades.

Kell Brook lands a punch on Shawn Porter during their welterweight title fight in August 2014 at StubHub Center/AP file photo by Chris Carlson

Kell Brook holds one of the welterweight title belts, but he is a big welterweight and he believes there will be no weight advantage for Gennady Golovkin when the two square off Sept. 10 for Golovkin’s middleweight titles at O2 Arena in London (on HBO).

The interested parties gathered Monday at a news conference in London. Brook made sure everyone knew he won’t be the smaller man in the ring come fight time.

“This is the biggest fight in world boxing,” said Brook, of England. “I’m the best welterweight in the world and no-one wants me, he’s the best middleweight in the world and no one wants him. I’ll be his size on fight night and I’m bringing the speed to middleweight.”

According to one source who requested anonymity, Brook was walking around at 178 pounds at the July 14 news conference in New York City promoting this fight. And he was not fat. The welterweight limit is 147, middleweight is 160.

Golovkin spoke as if he knows he won’t have a cake walk.

“Kell Brook has my full respect and a great team behind him,” Golovkin said. “It’s not easy for us to get opponents. He’s ready for me and I’m ready for him. Kell Brook is the biggest test to me. He’s a great champion, he’s moving up in weight, but great fighters have done that and I know he’s a great boxer and he will test me the most.”

Several outlets are reporting that an agreement has been reached for middleweight champions Gennady Golovkin and David Lemieux to square off in a title-unification bout Oct. 17 at Madison Square Garden (on HBO pay-per-view).

Golovkin, 33, is from Los Angeles via Kazakhstan. He is 33-0 with 30 knockouts, 14-0 with 14 knockouts in world-title fights. He also won an interim title fight with Milton Nunez by first-round knockout.

Lemieux, 26, is from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is 34-2 with 31 knockouts. He won a vacant title via 12-round decision over Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in June in Montreal.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is shown here at a Clippers game in 2013/Staff photo by MichaelOwen Baker, Los Angeles Daily News

By Tim Dahlberg, Associated Press

HBO and Showtime have agreed on how they would broadcast a fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, promoter Bob Arum said Thursday, leaving only two remaining issues to be settled before the much anticipated May 2 fight can be signed.

Arum told The Associated Press that the rival networks have come to terms on an announcing team and other details for the pay-per-view blockbuster, and that talks this week have narrowed the remaining differences between the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps.

“We had four issues and we resolved two,” said Arum, who promotes Pacquiao. “Now we’re working on resolving the other two. Unless something else comes up at the last minute, that’s what my take is.”

Arum declined to say what those two issues are, saying he didn’t want to sabotage the negotiations just as they are reaching a critical juncture. And it was not clear whether the Mayweather side views the negotiations the same as Arum, or even if Mayweather will agree to the fight.

Mayweather’s adviser is Al Haymon, who reportedly has been doing the negotiating on his fighter’s behalf. But Haymon doesn’t talk to the media, and Mayweather communicates almost exclusively through social media.

Mayweather’s latest postings showed him enjoying a trip on a private jet to the Caribbean and getting a fish pedicure. He did post on social media last week that a media report the fight was a done deal was a “lie.”

Arum said the major financial points of the fight have been agreed to, including a reported 60-40 split in the purse in Mayweather’s favor. Based on the fight doing a record $200 million or more in revenue, Mayweather’s payday could be at least $120 million.

“There’s a lot of devil in the details and that’s what we’re sorting through now,” Arum said. “The remaining issues are obviously important to the participants, and are things we have to work out.”

Mayweather’s representatives have dictated most of the terms of the fight, and Arum said Mayweather will be the one to announce it if it is made.

Mayweather fights under contract to Showtime and Pacquiao to HBO, and there was speculation the two networks could hold up the fight by not coming to terms themselves. But talks between top executives have been ongoing for weeks, and HBO issued a statement Monday saying it was not an “impediment” to the fight.

“We stand ready to go,” the statement said. “The principals need to agree to terms and come to a deal.”

An HBO spokesman declined comment Thursday, and Showtime executives were not immediately made available for comment.

While Mayweather has been vacationing, Pacquiao was heading home Thursday to the Philippines after a trip to the U.S. and England. While in Miami for the pageant, Pacquiao attended a Miami Heat basketball game the same night Mayweather was there and the two fighters exchanged numbers and discussed the fight.

They later met for an hour, and Arum said the meeting convinced him that Mayweather wanted to make the fight.

Before heading home, Pacquiao also met in Washington with Senate Minority Leader HarryReid and on Thursday attended the National Prayer Breakfast, where President BarackObama spoke.

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Light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev of Russia and challenger Blake Caparello of Australia both weighed in at 174 pounds for their title fight that will be contested Saturday at Revel Resort in Atlantic City (on HBO).

The limit is 175.

Kovalev, 31, is 24-0-1 with 22 knockouts. He’ll be looking to make his third successful title defense. Caparello, 27, is a light-hitter by comparison. The southpaw is 19-0-1 with just six knockouts. This will be his first shot at a major championship.

HBO’s Jim Lampley on Monday issued a formal apology for the mistake he made in this past Saturday’s version of “The Fight Game with Jim Lampley.”

Lampley was previewing the May 3 card in Las Vegas featuring Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana in the main event (on Showtime pay-per-view), when he came with this: “On his undercard Amir Khan is facing Luis Collazo and Adrien Broner fights Carlos Molina. Collazo is regarded as dangerous for Khan, but Molina has spent the bulk of the past few months in jail.”

Unfortunately, the Carlos Molina who has been in jail is a junior middleweight from Chicago. The Carlos Molina who is slated to fight Broner in the junior welterweight division is from Norwalk, and he has not been in jail.

“Saturday night on the latest edition of ‘The Fight Game’ on HBO, I made an embarrassing mistake,” Lampley said in a statement. “I confused light welterweight contender Carlos Molina of Norwalk, CA with 154-pound fighter Carlos Molina of Chicago. Los Angeles native Carlos Molina has an important fight on May 3 versus Adrien Broner in Las Vegas. None of the legal issues confronting Carlos Molina of Chicago have anything to do with the younger Molina. I apologize to Mr. Molina for confusing the matter as he prepares for his important prizefight next month.”

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